News in brief

12:00AM BST 06 Sep 2000

HUNDREDS of business leaders have given public backing to a campaign against British membership of the single currency.

More than 300 city figures, businessmen and economists have signed an advertisement in today's Financial Times which says that being "locked into the euro" would lead to "higher taxes and employment costs, and the wrong interest rate, risking a return to boom and bust." The advertisement features a pair of handcuffs and the words "euro no".

Business for Sterling, which is launching a campaign against membership of the single currency this week, said that the advertisement showed that a majority of businessmen in Britain were opposed to joining the euro.

Plea over radioactive waste

VERY low level radioactive waste from hospitals and universities should be buried in ordinary rubbish dumps, a Government advisory body has proposed.

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The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee told ministers that the NHS could save £10 million and provide better health care by burying its radioactive clinical material, such as tissues and syringes, in landfill sites.

The committee, chaired by Prof Charles Curtis, said that there "can come a point where the additional small reductions in radiation . . . are so expensive to achieve that the benefit is outweighed by the cost".

Mo: I won't write bitter book

MO MOWLAM suggested yesterday that she would not write a book attacking colleagues for mounting a "whispering campaign" against her and said she was not "bitter or angry with anyone".

Ex-MI5 chief's book 'leaked to newspaper'

THE Home Office last night described as "undesirable" claims that journalists had obtained an uncensored copy of a book by Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5.

The Sun said it had been given a copy of the manuscript, the original of which is still being vetted by the Home Office for clearance for possible publication. The newspaper said A Life of Surprises had been "locked in our safe" awaiting collection by Downing Street.

A Home Office spokesman said the claim was "undesirable" given that Dame Stella had "sought to follow the rules" governing books about the intelligence services. He said no investigation would be launched until "the veracity" of the paper's claims had been checked.

Children 'beat swan to death'

AN RSPCA investigation was launched yesterday after claims that six boys, aged eight to 14, clubbed a swan to death with a stick at Northampton. Annabelle Black, an RSPCA inspector, said: "Deliberate cruelty of this kind is barbaric and totally inexcusable."

Four face court martial

FOUR soldiers from the Grenadier Guards faced a court martial yesterday over the death of a Guardsman who was training for the SAS. Lt-Col George Norton, Capt William Smiley and Sgts Wayne Scully and Matthew Boak were charged with neglect of duty after Craig Lashley, 21, died in Jamaica in 1998. The hearing continues.

Blairs take baby to UN summit

LEO BLAIR Is today enjoying his first experience of transatlantic diplomacy. The Prime Minister and his wife, Cherie, have taken their baby to New York for the United Nations Millennium summit.

Nappies are being packed alongside the red boxes because Mrs Blair is still breastfeeding and did not want to leave Leo at home. The baby is expected to attract considerable interest and Downing Street, which has sometimes tried to stop his picture appearing in Britain, says that it will take a more relaxed attitude with American photographers.

Princes' resort may ban alcohol

AN alcohol ban is likely to be introduced next year in parts of Rock, Cornwall, a favourite summertime haunt of Princes William and Harry.

Erotic West End role for Culkin

MACAULAY CULKIN, the Home Alone actor, is to star in an erotic West End play about a teenager discovering the secrets of the Kama Sutra. The 20-year-old is to star in Madame Melville, written and directed by Richard Nelson, with the French actress Irene Jacob at the Vaudeville Theatre from Oct 18.